Icebreaker for Team Building and Motivation

Name of Icebreaker :  Sunshine

Category of Icebreaker  :  Motivation and Team Building

Time Scales  :  10 Minutes + (Depending on number in team)

Size of Group  : Unlimited  This Icebreaker can be used in many group sizes from 1: 1 to 100+.  If you do have more than 20 then split your teams into groups of no more than 20. 

Materials Required  :  A4 Paper and Pen per team member

Aim of the Icebreaker  :  This Icebreaker helps to boost confidence and motivation of every team member.  It helps to bring the team together, boost morale and team spirit and encourages each of them to feel valued within their team.

 Pre-Organisation

None

 Process

1. Give each team member a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write their name in the middle of it. 
2. Then ask them to draw a sunshine around their name with the number of lines to match the number of team members in the group, including themselves.  
3. Each team member then passes their sunshine to the person on their right and that team member will write something positive about that person on one of the lines. 
4. That team member then passes the sunshine to the person on their right and so on.
5. The sunshines are passed around the team anti clockwise until the whole team has written something positive on each sunshine about every team member. 
6. Once completed the sunshine is passed back to their owner and they write something positive about themselves.  (You can miss this part out but I feel this encourages self confidence and awareness and encourages every team member to also appreciate themselves as well as everyone else).
7. Every team member then reads out their sunshine to the rest of the group.

 Conclusion

This is a really rewarding icebreaker and helps create a wonderful positive atmosphere within the team and your training room.  It helps not only boost self confidence and motivation but also increases team spirit, team bonding and team motivation.

You could display the sunshines in the staff room or by the team members desks / work station to give them a constant reminder of how great they are.

 Variation

This icebreaker could be used within 1:1’s, interviews and appraisals where the individual completes the sunshine themselves or the Manager completes it for them.

 

Comments

[Mary Minisha]

Hi,
Thank you for sharing this icebreaker. I am going to use this in my training and i am sure this will have a great impact on the trainees.

Thank You once again.

Mary Minisha

[Philly Fuggle]

Hi Sanda, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this blog.

What you could do is use this towards the end of your training day, split your group into teams that they have been working in during your training. Alternatively use it as a getting to know you where they write down say 7 words for example that explain their personality and then share them with the rest of the group.

[Sanda Ionescu]

I love the thought of this icebreaker! I was just wondering if you had any tips how you could use it with a group of people who do not know each other (yet).

[Carole]

I used this very icebreaker only this week and the smiles on the learner's faces was fantastic! They loved it, felt good and were motivated by the exercise. And all this from a group who are normally rejected by society and deemed to be "trouble".

So, rock on Sunshine!